New Tastes...

Merchants, Lancaster

Last night a group of the LUFS girls went to The Merchants in Lancaster for our first Christmas meal as

a society- woo! We agreed on a formal dress code (everyone loves gett

ing dressed up) and so at 7pm I tottered out of the house

dolled up and ready

to devour a lovely three course dinner.

As there were seventeen of us, we had been given a full bay to ourselves, and with Merchants being based inside a historic wine cellar, it was the perfect place for a Christmas meal. All the stonework looked gorgeous bathed in twinkly lights, and the table was dressed beautifully with crackers and candles, providing the perfect festive atmosphere.

I am always greedy at Christmas time and so had pre-ordered the three course meal for £19.50. For my starter I chose parsnip and pancetta soup served with fresh bread. It was nice, although I couldn't taste the pancetta very much which was slightly disappointing as I love i

t; and thought it would compliment the parsnip flavour really well. The ho

me-made granary bread more than made up for it though as it was s

o soft and I got two chunky slices!

For main I wa

s supposed

to

be having goose, but a couple of days before I was informed that they were no longer serving it, so I opted for the roast beef instead- and I'm so glad I did! I really enjoy beef, but don't have it very often as I'm quite picky about it, but it was s

erved perfectly for my liking, and the roast and boiled p

otatoes

that came with it were delicious. It also came with broccoli and a huge Yorkshire pudding on top, however it was a little overdone in my opinion, as I prefer them slightly stodgy rather than fully crisp.

For dessert, rather than going straight for the Christmas pudding as I normally wo

uld,

I

decided to get something a little lighter so as not to have to roll home! I went for the

p

anettone, served with fresh mascarpone. It seemed to bridge the gap between a dessert and a c

heeseboard really well, as the Italian cake was soft and sweet, yet the vanilla mascarpone added a sub

tle savoury flavour.

I shared a bott

le of re

d wine with one of the other girls, which seemed to complim

ent my menu

choices. Considering

a glass was £4.50, a bottle was reaso

nably priced at £9.90, so it was definitely worth going for the larger

option!

Once we had all finished (and had given ourselves so

me time to

rest!) we all left Merchants after a thoroughly festive evening, and it confirmed that I am definitely now in the spirit for

Christmas!